John Fredriksen

John Fredriksen is a shipping tycoon of Norwegian origin. He owns the biggest fleet of oil tankers in the world. He was once listed as the richest man in Norway before he renounced his Norwegian citizenship in favor of a Cypriot one. He currently resides in London in the U.K. He is one of the richest shipping tycoons in the world & is worth about 11.5 billion USD. His chain of companies form the backbone of his wealth. He owns investment companies like Meisha, Hemen Holdings and through these he runs firms like Frontline and Golar LNG. .He owns the majority stake in offshore drilling company SeaDrill, fishing company Marine Harvest , dry bulk firm Golden Ocean Group, supply vessel firm Deep Sea Supply & a smaller stake in the tanker company Overseas Shipholding Group.
His enormous wealth has ensured a very luxurious lifestyle for him. He owns several luxury homes in Marbella, Oslo, Cyprus & Chelsea in London. Most of his homes are reported to be sea facing. His Chelsea home is valued at about 200 million USD. He is an avid collector of classic Norwegian art. He is passionate about football & owns the Norwegian club Vålerenga I.F. He drives around in luxury cars like Lamborghini & Ford Thunderbird SuperCoupe. He flies around the world in a Gulfstream 550 private jet. He is not known whether he is involved in any charitable activities. His is a typical rags to riches story. He was born in a middle class Norwegian family. His father was a welder. His entrepreneurial streak was visible from a very early age & he started his own enterprise at the age of 27. He was once married to Inger Katharina Astrup Fredriksen but unfortunately his wife passed away a few years ago. The couple were blessed with twin daughters Kathrine and Cecilie who were born in 1983. He has been involved in a few controversies in his personal life when he was detained by the authorities over allegations that he jeopardized the life of his crew members to make a quick profit.

"Oil traders, they are supposed to buy and sell. I don’t think it is illegal but I am not an expert on oil trading, so I don’t see the problem."

"We continue to see very limited LNG shipping availability. The strong underlying market trend and our large new building program is likely to give rise to a significant increase in Golar’s earnings in the period 2011 to 2014."

"We have a huge stock portfolio, which has not done that great recently, and various things, mostly in cash. Our holding company is debt-free, so we are waiting for the right deal to come up."

He was the richest man of Norway who is the owner of the worlds largest oil tanker fleet.

He n and his family were listed as the 9th richest in Britain with a combined wealth of £6.6bn in 2012.

He was included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets Magazine in 2012.

He began as a trainee in a ship broking company and at the age of 27 he started working for himself making his fortune during the Iran-Iraq wars in the 1980s.